Officials: Japanese City of Kurume will not host Kenyan athletes due to surge in Covid-19 cases : The standard Sports

The plan for Kenyan athletes to train in the Japanese City of Kurume before the Tokyo Olympics Games has been cancelled due to a surge in Covid-19 cases in Japan.

The announcement comes two months after the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) and Kurume City officials entered a partnership where Kenyan athletes were to train in the city before the Olympics Games.

In a statement sent to Standard Sports on Wednesday morning, Team Kenya’s Chef de Mission to Tokyo Olympics Mr Waithaka Kioni said that Kurume City officials scrapped plans for pre-Olympics training because of the resurgent Covid-19 pandemic in Japan.

“Kindly note that Kurume City has sent a communication indicating that they will not host our teams for the previously agreed pre-games training camp,” said Mr Waithaka.

“They have cited the continuing surge in Covid-19 pandemic in Japan as the reason for the withdrawal.”

NOC-K had on Monday revealed that Kenya’s team for the Games were preparing to leave for a pre-Olympic training camp in Kurume City on July 5 where they were to intensify their training before heading to Tokyo five days before competition.

“All Team Managers have been notified of this development and requested to plan local training accordingly,” Mr Waithaka added.

With 51 days remaining until the start of the Games, 90 athletes have qualified for the Games -that is 39 men and 51 women.

Karate, shooting, Athletics, triathlon, judo, weightlifting, Canoe and rowing and beach volleyball are yet to finalise their qualification paths.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were postponed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and are scheduled to start on July 23.

Teams will arrive in Tokyo five days before their competition and leave 48 hours after they finish their individual disciplines.

The team will be adequately funded by the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage through the Sports Fund.